Collision Course
by SinsofMidnight
Summary: Secrets had torn her life apart and sent her running for the only known clairvoyant in the Iron Tribe and the one called Age. So why, then, does it seem she is bound to a knight and not the Princess? And what of the secrets she's still keeping? Iolaus/OC. Some slash. Rated M for themes and things.
1. Chapter 1 - PANDORA

_So... I've been working on this one for a bit. The first two chapters have been posted on my fanfiction archive for a while now, but I thought I would share it with you._

_It is litterally heartbreaking to see how few Heroic Age fics are out there, man! And absolutely nothing with OCs that I saw when I last checked!_

_So here we go: the obligatory OC fic! Each new chapter is a perspective change! Ready, steady... go!_

* * *

**Collision Course**

**_Fandom:_**_Heroic Age_

**_Teaser:_**_ "__I gazed up into startling blue eyes and had to smile.  
'Hello, Pan-dor-a,' he greeted slowly, as though sounding out my name."_

**_Inspiration:_**_I watched Heroic Age through again. I loved that Iolaous and Age both loved the same woman –so I decided to toss another wrench into the works in the form of Pandora ("Ambrose")._

**_Rating: _**_M, because I am a fangirl and I'm dangerous ;)_

**_Warnings:  
_**_-Interrogation  
-Clairvoyance  
-Secrets  
-Plenty of Sass…_

**_Main Pairing: _**_Iolaous Oz Mehelim/Pandora ("Ambrose")_

**_Minor Pairings:_**_  
-Dhianeila Y Leisha Altoria Ol Yunos/Age  
-(One-sided) Iolaous Oz Mehelim/_ _Aneasha Ol Megarla_

**_Setting: _**_Before they really find out much about the Silver Tribe or meet more than Karkinos… I need them in the dark a little :P_

**_POV:_**_Pandora ("Ambrose") and Iolaous tell the story. First person perspective from both._

**_Summary:_**_Secrets had torn her life apart and sent her running for the only known clairvoyant in the Iron Tribe and the one called Age. So why, then, does it seem she is bound to a knight and not the Princess? And what of the secrets she's still keeping?_

**_Additional ANs:_**_Inanity happens, alright? That it involved Nelvil and Iolaous Oz Mehelim in the first place is freaking awesome :P_

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As non-traditional as my upbringing was, it's not all that surprising that I'm not really much for standing on ceremony. Still, I find that there are a few times in life that I really wish people _would_. For example, when a simple request to see someone sees me drug to the brig for a harsh interrogation.

"What is your _name_?" the young man started in again, bearing down on me with a serious expression. He would be attractive if he smiled, but during these long hours, I had only seen his scowl. Some part of me half-desired to make him smile, but I smothered the impulse. It would be just a bit longer. Just a bit longer.

It might be only a bit longer, but that didn't make me any less impatient, myself. I figured he had to have it in spades. I sighed heavily. "As I told you before, I give my name to no man. I will only speak my name and my purpose to her highness."

"Why won't you tell _me_?" he demanded, frustrated. I would be frustrated, too, after as many hours of fruitless interrogation he'd fought through with me. Still, I dare not relent. Names given to someone from one's own lips bore a certain amount of power, and I dare not give a man that power over me.

"Because I don't matter to you and I never will beyond today. Allow me to speak to her highness and you will never see me again."

A young woman stuck her head into the cell. "Iolaous-onii-sama, you've been in here for _hours_ and you still don't even have her name?"

A second face popped in, identical to the first. They even wore their brown hair in the same style and their big brown eyes seemed to gaze into my soul. "Perhaps you should let someone else try?" the second girl inquired.

_What adorable twin sisters he has_, I thought to myself, barely smothering a smirk as the girls retreated from the room at his glare. I now knew more about him than he did about me. "So it's Ioalous, then. It's a nice name, a strong name."

The man called Iolaous growled but forced back the rest of his reaction. "What is your purpose here?"

"To speak with the one who rules the Iron Tribe, of course, my darling Iolaous. Surely you guessed that."

"Unless you answer some of my questions, she will never even be alerted to your presence."

"Oh, you are _so_ darling. She already knows I'm here –that's why your sweet sisters have checked up on you." Smugly, I crossed my arms and reclined back in my chair. "It's a matter of time."

"Give up, Iolaous. She has you beat," remarked the tall woman who slipped into the room. Her uniform seemed designed to display her abundant breasts and I wanted to shudder and check my wraps. "Dhianeila is coming down to see her."

"Not… surely not in person!?" he interjected, staring at the woman.

"I bear your princess no will-ill, Io-laous," I sing-songed. "And she can surely sense that."

The door opened again, and the room filled more: first with a blond woman, then with a small flock of what had to be her attendants. "I am Dhianeila Y Leisha Altoria Ol Yunos. I understand that you seek an audience with me."

Rising from my chair only to bow deeply, I thought about the many things I could say before I finally settled on the simplest of words. "Thank you for agreeing to see me, your highness. I beg your pardon, but I shall not give you my name in front of so many people. In place of that, you can call me Ambrose. I… I was born of the Silver Tribe but raised by the Iron Tribe. It is my great honor to make your acquaintance, Dhianeila-heikai-sama.

Though the revelation of my heritage had to be a rather shocking to her –after all, it had been to _me_– she handled it with impeccable ease. "I apologize whole-heartedly, Ambrose, for the way you were treated upon your arrival here. It is unfortunate, but the additional security has become a necessity in my life."

"I understand, your majesty." Swallowing hard, I wondered how to say it. The words on my tongue did not seem like enough, but finally, I decided I had to spit it out. "I… I am the sixth Nodos, bound to no tribe. I seek the one called Age."

The collective gasp that filled the cell was damning evidence of the fact I'd shocked them all. I was actually rather surprised that that was the first revelation to wring such a reaction from them, but one really had to go with the flow on such things.

As far as most people knew, there _was_ no sixth Nodos. After all, there had been the four promised to the Silver Tribe and only one promised to the Iron Tribe. The only thing I could guess was that I might be meant to be bound to the Bronze Tribe, but at 20 years of age, they had not sought for me or even hunted for me. Sadly, it seemed I was an unwanted phenomenon, but at least it allowed me to bounce place to place unfettered. Or, it would have, except…

"Do you… do you know our Age?" the princess inquired politely. Despite her calm tone, the stirrings of my alien heritage told me she was more than a bit worried by the fact I needed to see Age.

I laughed, the sound hollow and heavy to my own ears. "No. But I need his help."

"May I inquire as to why?"

"Because… because…." I sighed, feeling the strain pinching tighter and tighter around me until the room fell dark and all the voices sounded at once."Because he can save my life."

Before I passed out, I felt warm hands catch me before I hit the floor and I couldn't help but wonder who it had been. Surely not one of her young attendants… Surely not the princess herself… Had it been my interrogator? Something about the notion pleased me. I felt the sudden surge in concern among all of the on-lookers, so at least… at least I would be _safe_ when I came to. At least I wouldn't be the freak.

And so, for the first time in the two years since I'd learned the truth about myself, I did not fear going into the darkness.

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_Good start? Bad start? WTF is going on start?_

_Let me know!_

_Your most diligent sinner,  
~Sins~_


	2. Chapter 2 - IOLAUS

_I told you, I've got a few chapters for this... Well, two and a half ^^_

_Chapter two beckons with Iolaous and Aneasha!_

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Princess Dhianeila stared at me and the woman I now cradled against me. Honestly, I'd barely managed to catch before she hit the floor and after such a poor reception, I imagined she'd be grateful for the small things I could do for her. "She… she's clairvoyant, Iolaous… perhaps you should let Aneasha carry her instead?" she intoned finally.

I shook my head. "She's more familiar with me at this point than with anyone else on this ship."

"But the psychic overload…"

"Has already forced her into unconsciousness, your highness, but when she was alone with me in the interrogation suite, she was fine." In fact, it really hadn't seemed to get particularly bad until the princess had arrived. I wondered if it might have had something to do with magnitude of the princess's abilities –or perhaps a lack of training with her own. "I understand that she must be under Aneasha's care, but please allow me to carry her."

The princess swallowed hard. "Does Age know she is aboard?"

My younger sisters shook their heads. "He was busy in the garden," Mail volunteered. "We saw no need to disturb him."

"Perhaps he should be there when she wakes, then, since he is what brought her to us."

I nodded slowly. "I can go after him when she's waking," I volunteered. Clairvoyant I may not be, but instant transmission had its perks. There was something about this particular woman I couldn't quite put my finger on, but oddly enough, I liked it. That she had endlessly frustrated me for three solid hours of interrogation intrigued me. Maybe all of her intrigued me. I had never met a woman quite like this Ambrose.

I wanted to know more about her. More than that, though, I did not want her to awaken in strange surroundings and be afraid. Though I had been her interrogator, she had warmed to me to some extent. I might be enough familiarity to keep her from panicking –and a panicking Nodos would definitely be something to avoid if we wished to have a ship left.

Finally, the princess relented with an almost dismissive wave of her hand. Pulling Ambrose a bit closer to my body and lifting her for easier carrying, I began to walk toward the infirmary. Anesha followed on my heels with an unreadable expression.

Eventually, she said, "Iolaous, you don't need to carry her the whole way –you could simply take her directly to the infirmary."

How ironic that it hadn't even _occurred_ to me to use that ability? I rather liked the feel of her in my arms and I wasn't all that inclined to speed the process. Though the thought was certainly rogue and odd for me, it didn't worry me. But that didn't mean that I was willing to admit anon of it to Aneasha, though. "She probably shouldn't arrive before her care-taker," I remarked instead, trying for levity. "If she's anything like Age, she can get into mischief even unconscious."

Aneasha quieted and bit her lip slightly as we reached the infirmary. I laid Ambrose out gently across the cot, settling her arms by her sides and brushing her coppery curls out of her face. She was beautiful like this, as though she had finally found a bit of peace, and something in me wanted to protect that peace. _By the stars, what is _wrong_ with me?_ I wondered.

"Doesn't it _bother_ you?"

I turned to look at her, wondering if I'd voiced my thought aloud for a few moments. "Does _what_ bother me?"

"She… she's a _Nodos_. More than that, she's _obviously_ a half-breed. Don't those things bother you, Iolaous?" Aneasha questioned, her face flushed.

Blinking, I stared at the woman before me. I'd never seen Aneasha like this and I'd rarely heard a cross word even slid through her lips. Why _now_ of all times was her temper running amok? "Why _should_ any of that bother me? Age is a Nodos, as well, and while he can be a bit troublesome at times and rather naïve, I don't find him repugnant or anything of the sort. She can't help her heritage, Aneasha, and I can't bring myself to hold it against her, any more than you could hold the princes against Dhianeila."

Blinking rapidly, she appeared somewhat chastened. "I…I…" She stumbled for a few moments, obviously flustered. "I hadn't thought of it that way…"

"In many ways, Ambrose is very much like our princess. Smart, strong of will…"

"Clairvoyant?" she interjected, trying to lighten things.

I offered her a smile. "Indeed, that as well. Would I be in the way if I stayed here by her side, Aneasha?"

"Not at all." She shook her head. "Perhaps it is a good thing, since I'm creating senseless prejudices out of puffs of smoke." Her sigh was heavy.

I shrugged. "I may have met her a little sooner, but she's… she's not the enemy. She's something else entirely."

"Providence at work, then?"

We'd never had prophecies of more than a single Nodos to our tribe, but we were promised that our Nodos would protect the ones to who they were bound. It wouldn't be all that shocking to find out she played into our prophesies that way, either. Yet there was something in me that cringed at the thought of her fighting battles for us. "In her own way, she's as lost in dealing with her heritage and her power as we are. I think that's why I can't hold those things against her. She's snap back at me and hold her own in the interrogation, but I watched her curl further and further into herself for three straight hours. She's scared and hurting and uncomfortable, and like us, she wants nothing more than to be back home. At least, that's what I could see in her posture and body language."

Aneasha touched Ambrose's hand for the first time. "That's so sad… I hadn't looked at things that way, really, and I'm sorry to have judged her so harshly."

"Well, I don't think she would blame you either. After revealing those things, I think she expected to be judged. It's human to be afraid of things we don't understand, Aneasha." I offered her a smile. "And she understands human better than anyone, I think."

* * *

_And everyone waxes philosophical. Actually, that seems to be a trend in how I write Iolaous, lol._

_Do you like her yet? Hate something? Think I should get back to my little "Ambrose" soon? REVIEW, little ones, and tell me so!_

_Your most diligent Sinner,  
~Sins~_


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